Also, offshore brokers offer something US brokers won’t (can’t because not allowed by CFTC regulations) – “negative balance protection”. So you get the advantages of extreme leverage, with limited downside risk like an option.

Imagine having a large short position in CHF Futures going into the SNB crisis a couple of years ago. The CME would have called “Dog the Bounty Hunter” to collect the loss “down to your last cufflink” as they used to say. More than a few trading careers were ruined that day.

But if you had been trading offshore, account balance would have been zeroed, otherwise no big deal.

Did you know the German Financial Authority (BAFIN) requires retail FX brokers to offer zero balance protection. Yet another example of how US regulators exist to serve the Financial Institution cartel, not individual investors

My subject says it all. IF you are even close to “flirting” with exhaustion
of your Buying/Holding Power, then you should just hang it up…

I’d just leave it at saying, in general, that you have 10x Buying Power
with these non-U.S. brokers; but let’s not push it, UNLESS you
happen to have a Trading Strategy (or Algorithm) which gives
you CONTROL over your Exposure… 'Nuff said ?? LOL

On the Coinexx.com side, I believe they offer only MT5
accounts. This is a challenge for me until I get the MT5
terminal types stabilized in my NJ4X runtime system…
But ultimately, we’ll all have to move to MT5, and I
expect to use Coinexx extensively, as well as Evolve.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah against JAFX, Ltd. (JAFX), a/k/a JAFX, EOOD, of Sofia, Bulgaria and Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

I hadn’t posted in a while, but wanted to give you all an update on CCM (Capital City Markets). I began having trouble earlier this year withdrawing funds. Rather then the typical 2-4 days it should take I was waiting 1-2 months. They kept giving excuses that they were having trouble with their intermediary bank (the bank was requiring more documentation) and said they were trying to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.

I’ve made multiple withdrawals throughout this year with the same issue every time…but I ended up getting my money (after many emails). My last withdrawal was submitted last in May but wasn’t received until July. They actually split that into 2 wire transfer saying that they weren’t allowed to wire that much cash (was only $25k). Received one and after a few more weeks (and many emails) I received the last part of my withdrawal.

I know they were red listed by the CFTC last year (sorry, since I’m a noob they won’t allow me to post the link), so maybe the additional regulatory attention is causing these issues, but I hate when they leave me in the dark about why I can’t get my money out.

End result, I got all my money back. But I don’t trust them anymore and won’t be using them. I don’t like having to wait that long for my money, and it just seems to get sketchier and sketchier. The fact that they haven’t fixed the issue and haven’t been fully transparent about it just shakes my trust in them. **Side note, their spreads are really high most of the time.

Anyone else having similar issues with them? Should we remove them from our list? Would be interested to hear others’ experiences.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah against JAFX, Ltd. (JAFX), a/k/a JAFX, EOOD, of Sofia, Bulgaria and Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

JAFX has been included for many months in the Alphabetical List of Brokers in post #4 of this thread. And the listing has always said “no U.S. clients”, because that’s what the fine print at the bottom of each JAFX webpage indicates.

This is the text in fine print:

“All information on this website is not directed towards soliciting citizens or residents of the United States. Please check with your local jurisdiction if you are permitted to open an account with JAFX.”

• However, if you begin the Live Account opening process, this is the first page that comes up:

It appears that JAFX has done a poor job of disguising the fact that they will, indeed, open accounts for U.S. clients.

The control-freaks at the CFTC will always go for the easy-pickings first. JAFX kinda asked to be noticed by the CFTC when they made “United States” the default selection on their account opening page.

I haven’t traded with CCM, and I’m not inclined to do so in the future. But, like you, I have wondered whether we should continue to host them in Group 1 of our List.

Personally I think after all the issues that we hear about them it might not be right. There are always issues with brokers, but as long as those issues are not persistent and not related to withdrawals, its not a “red” signal for me. I think we might have to think about users who follow and believe in the brokers that you put up there in Group-1. I personally know of atleast a couple of traders who just opened an account with one of the listed brokers, just because they were on the Group 1 list. Obviouslt its a democratic vote that we follow on this thread, but my sense is that there might be more users who agree with what I’m saying in here.

my concern is that the CFTC will start going after all offshore brokers who accept U.S. citizen on there R.E.D. list

I personally belive crypto borkers are the ultimate solution (atleast as of current scenario). These brokers are not limited by banking system, that is controlled by CFTC and the likes… I’m betting evolve.markets and coinexx.com are sort of best positioned to take advantage of the current situation and have longivity when compared to some other offshore brokers, especially in how they are structured.

I wanted to update the group. I got all of my balance from Capital City Markets today. Took just under a month from start to finish, which isn’t acceptable, but I got the $$ which is of course the most important thing. My experience with execution, etc was good. Their spreads are too high, especially for an offshore broker, but it was all upfront. Now the question is, do I put my $$ into OANDA, or go back offshore? Thanks again to the contributors of this thread (especially Clint).

Really up to you. IG group is coming back to the USA, so there is some hope there. But the current selection of offshore brokers that openly accept USA clients leaves something to be desired. Too bad as there are some great options like Darwinex, Global Prime Au, LMAX, etc

Clint:

We don’t address the needs of traders in other countries (except, occasionally, Canada) who are looking for brokers beyond their own national borders.

Now that ESMA has stepped up to challenge our own CFTC as the World Forex Police, it will probably become necessary for someone from Europe to open a thread similar to this one, in which to address the interests of European traders desiring to escape from ESMA.

Well, there is a big difference here. ESMA is not banning people from using non EU brokers. There are plenty of quality brokers in Australia and Switzerland that you could trade with. And you can go offshore to less stable jurisdictions and take your chances.

When Brexit is complete, UK will likely reverse some of ESMA rules, particularly on leverage.

Also, ESMA ban is technically only 90 days long.
And while the new leverage rules do not affect professional traders. Although I do not recommend re-classifying as a professional trader. It is a scammer’s dream, as it allows brokers to legally walk away with client funds without any recourse. As this trader noted:

whywescalp:

You understand and agree that the consequence of the transfer of ownership of any such monies means that it shall no longer be regarded or treated as “Client Money” in relation to the segregation of those monies and that we may deal with such money in our own right. Furthermore, in the case of insolvency, you rank as a general creditor in relation to such money.

You do have the right to request re-categorisation as a retail client. Whilst we will consider such a request, we cannot guarantee we would agree to it.

As a professional client, you will not receive the benefit of certain protections that are available for retail clients under FCA’s rules. You may however be eligible to benefit from lower overnight financing charges and interest on encumbered funds on your account. We enclose a summary of the main differences between professional clients and retail clients herein for your information

Why reclassify when you can go to a proper jurisdiction and get real protections? Defeats the entire purpose of being onshore if:

Why reclassify when you can go to a proper jurisdiction and get real protections?

can you please elaborate more. What is your suggestion ?. I understand that its perhaps one of the most foolish thing to do to get classified as a professional trader but options do we really have to keep our required leverage and trading conditions intact ? other than going offshore or going to a second level jurisdiction (which is not better than offshore brokers)

More specifically, the CFTC’s complaint was filed on July 27, 2018 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. It alleges that JAFX has been the counterparty to leveraged, retail forex transactions for customers located in the United States from September 2016 to present. The CFTC also alleges that the broker misrepresented its profit probability and risk of loss to customers.

OK, just to say where I’m focussed, we just went into production
using TurnkeyForex.com, FinProTrading.com, Evolve.Markets,Coinexx.com and Tradersway.com as active accounts managed
by a BOT in a couple of pools, “small” and “medium” so that
similar accounts can operate on similar risk profiles…

A Master/Slaves arrangements allows for Slaves to instantly
copy the Master’s positions, while scaling them down in size
appropriately to the Slave account size, etc…

This is all “pure Forex” over the 28 Pairs, so I won’t be commenting
on any other trading instruments…

I’d hate to lose any of these brokers, and preferably we can
begin to accumulate more candidates… KEEP LOOKING
for new quality brokers, please !!

You mention withdrawal issues as being something concerning, and that’s what’s been happening with CCM. I’ve been with them since they were Tallinex (those of us whose accounts were transferred to CCM as Tallinex could no longer accept US clients…I think because of CFTC crackdowns). Anyway, I’ve been a loyal customer for many years and really haven’t had many issues. But I’ve made 4-5 withdrawals since January and it’s been a complete nightmare every time. Yes I got my money, but something isn’t right over there and they aren’t being open about it. We don’t have to remove them (maybe just downgrade them), I’m just letting everyone know I don’t trust CCM anymore and have withdrawn all my money from them.

I still have a live account there, that was transferred from Tallinex, CFTC recently sued Tallinex and fined them 10 million. SO lets see how the CFTC plans on collecting that. They may have some ties in NY somehow.

As for CCM I never was able to get money in there, I got the CC approved, and sent them all those pictures of the front and back of the CC with the face of the card holder, and after that CC was approved for deposit, they stopped taking credit cards, so I have never funded that account.

if you got the money thats whats most important~! AND for sure slow withdrawls suck, but better late than never!

I have read through much of this thread - it took a while! ! What a trove of intell!

I plan on openning a new account with Turnkeyforex. Like many other folks I am concerned about withdrawls.

Is there anything preventing an account holder of Turnkey to open a bank account, private or could it be held in the name of a trust or LLC, in GB and have withdrawls sent there and then from there to their US bank account?

I suppose if it was that simple it would have already been done or it’s illegal!

I was under the impression that the CFTC only applied to regulated brokers doing business in the US.

I have read through much of this thread - it took a while! ! What a trove of intell!

I was under the impression that the CFTC only applied to regulated brokers doing business in the US.

If this was covered in a prior post of this thread I missed it.

Back in March 2012, I posted a brief history of the CFTC’s regulation of retail forex in the U.S. Toward the end of that post, I mentioned the CFTC’s meddling in the affairs of offshore brokers alleged to be violating CFTC regulations.

Here is a short quote from that rather long post –

Clint:

The Dodd-Frank Bill is partly responsible for the CFTC’s prosecution of offshore retail forex brokers who have (or had) some “presence” in the U.S., and/or have (or had) U.S.-resident clients. The CFTC cites both the CRA and the Dodd-Frank legislation as their authority to pursue these foreign brokers.

But, in my opinion, the CFTC would be doing what they’re doing to offshore brokers with or without the help of the Dodd-Frank Bill.

If you are interested in the “brief history” referred to above, click HERE.